Daniel Radcliffe Channeling Allen Ginsberg for ‘Kill Your Darlings’

Daniel Radcliffe is, career-wise, going from playing one of the most iconic literary characters of the past 100 years to one of the most iconic writers of the past 100 years. As Twitch informs us, the boy who lived will star in the “gay-themed thriller” Kill Your Darlings, and will do so as none other than Allen Ginsberg.

The Howl author is reported to be one of the central characters in John Krokidas‘ film, which also includes friends and contemporaries of the Beat poet — including Jack Kerouac, Lucien Carr, and William S. Burroughs. Anyone familiar with these noted writers’ lives will know exactly how you could make a fascinating thriller out of their association. Those of you who don’t would be well-off knowing that Ginsberg, Kerouac, and Carr all met at Columbia University in the early ’40s, and, along with Carr’s friend, Burroughs, formed the Beat movement.

Carr ran into a bit of misfortune however, when — according to him, mind you — longtime friend David Kammerer made an attempt at sexual content with the author. After turning it down, Kammerer allegedly assaulted him; Carr then killed the teacher with a knife in an act widely seen as self-defense. Needless to say, things got a bit messy from there — Kerouac and Burroughs were briefly thrown in jail as material witnesses, and Carr served two years in prison before continuing what was, by many standards, an everyday life.

Back in 2009, the original cast was said to be comprised ofBen Whishaw as Carr, Chris Evans as Kerouac, and Jesse Eisenberg as Ginsberg. But that lattermost option is clearly off the table, regardless of the other two’s potential involvement. A minor shame, too — hard to picture him not hitting that one out of the park. Nevertheless, I’m anxious to see Radcliffe branch outside the world of J.K. Rowling in the next couple of years; between this and The Woman in Black, it looks as if he might not fade into total obscurity.

Do you see Radcliffe making a good Ginsberg? How does this whole project sound?